The Dead Zone
by Captain Protonn
Summary: This is the sequel to my story Stand By Me. What kind of trouble will Tib, Stefondro, and Jaime get into now? Will they ever escape The Dead Zone?
1. Chapter 1

Chap: 1

In Stefondros sleek little ship the three men, Stefondro, Tib, and Jaime left the planet Zwinkoo and their little adventure far behind.

They had healed Tibs bruised swollen jaw and a few cuts he had sustained. They also replicated him a new shirt to go with it.

Jaime sat in the pilots seat seemingly steering them wherever his creepy little heart desired. Stefondro kept shooting him dirty looks as if he didn't altogether trust Jaime with his ship.

Stefondro suddenly lost his cool and shot up out of the corner he had so quietly hunched himself in.

"Alright thats it!" he strutted to the pilots seat. "Up, Up ,UP!" Inch by inch Jaime got shoved on up and out of the seat.

Jaime, now standing a few feet away, watched Stefondro with barely controlled curiosity. Stefondro settled himself into the chair, picked up a hand of cards along with a walkie talkie and threw them in Jaimes direction.

"And take your card game with you!"

Jaime clumsily tried to catch the cards but to no avail, and he totally missed the walkie talkie which landed painfully on his foot.

A door swooshed open revealing Tib who had his own cards and walkie talkie. " Whats wrong Stefondro? Havn't you ever played Long-range Slap Jack before?" he scurried over to Stefondros side. "It really is quite. . . . challenging."

"Yeah!" Piped up Jaime "But we renamed it Slap Tib for the full effect."

Tib nodded enthusiastically in agreement. Stefondro gave them both a glare, then thought it best to remind them of something. " There will be no playing cards, especially Slap Tib or Anything, while you're piloting my vessel." He looked at his bow, Which he named Rev, it was leaning next to him along with a bunch of arrows and a plunger . . . just in case. " Isn't that right Rev? weren't you getting tired of watching them try to slap eachother from opposite rooms?"

Behind Stefondros back Jaime made some hand gestures to Tib and ,once Tib gave a thumbs up, grabbed his cards and walkie talkie and snuck out the room.

Tib hunkered down in the seat next to Stefondro and started spreading his cards down on the console in front of him.

Before he got too far however Stefondro began delicatley picking each one back up and handing them back to Tib.

"Tib if you attempt to play that impossible game next to me I can assure you the only one who will be slapping Tib is gonna be me."

Tib raised his hands in defeat. He began to speak into the walkie-talkie. "Operation: TryAndDoItAnyway is a Code Red, a fail, I repeat, a fail."

A moment later Jaimes voice came back. " Roger that."

Tib got up and ordered his favorie Manfood from the replicator, it very much resembled a manwich. He sat back down lazily in the chair and began chomping messily away at it. He always marveled at replicators. Stefondros people were amazing to have such things! Tibs own people weren't quite as advanced . . . or really advanced at all. . . but they are working on it.

Jaime sauntered back into the room and hoisted himself up to sit on the nearest console.

Without even looking behind him Stefondro sharply ordered " Butt off." and impatiently pointed to the ground.

Jaime slid off and went to sit in the corner Stefondro was hunched in earlier, which they all liked to refer to as the man cave.

"Where are we going?" Jaime asked.

" I thought you needed to get back to the starship you work on." Stefondro replied.

" Not really, I'm on leave, I only went to the ship to acquire a shuttle to search for my missing twin brother."

Stefondro chuckled at this. "Yeah and then I came along and found your shuttle being pummbled by an astroid field, so I saved your sorry butt and we searched in my ship for about two minutes."

Tib had no idea what the two were rambling on about for he hadn't been there, you could say he was otherwise occupied at the time. He had a feeling he missed something amusing.

Tib caught sight of Jaime straightening his uniform. " Hey Jaime whats with the goofy lookin uniform?"

Jaime looked surprised " Oh this? I am a Cheif engineer in Starfleet, you've never heard of it?"

" Nope, Stefondro you ever work with this Starfleet?"

"I've dabbled."

Tib narrowed his eyes. "Interesting . . . you'd think I would know this since I am your best friend."

Stefondro tried to look innocent. It was like a whole conversation was taking place with a few eye twitches and a grunt here and there:

_"Oh come on Tib do I have to tell ya everything?"_

_"Naw, but that biiig important chunk of your life would of been nice to know. All those years thats where you ran off to?"_

_"Yup, in starfleet academy doing my duty."_

_" Heh, doody. . . . Interesting."_

_" No Tib! duty! I said duty not doody! or well I thought it or well i guess i looked at you funny. . . so i looked it into your brain i guess?"_

_" Something like that."_

_"Well I came back to hang with you didn't I?"_

_"Yuppers."_

_"Mhmm."_

_"Nice day today isn't it?"_

_"Tib were in the middle of space. . . . . ."_

Once they finally stopped creepily communing with their expressions Stefondro gave Tib a playful shove. Tib smiled and laughed with a snort, which just absolutely destroyed the moment. Stefondro rolled his eyes then sent Tib over to the man cave to finish eating because he was getting manwich all over everything.

Jaime for his part immediatley popped up and ran from the man cave to steal the empty seat. But before he could get there a huge very determined animal managed to barely shove through the doorway, shaving a bunch of feathers off its massive wings.

In shock Jaime tripped over his other foot and thudded to the ground. "Wha- What is that thing?" he managed to get out.

Stefondro and Tib seemed utterly calm as if this was not occurring. Tib acually shoved the rest of his manwich in his mouth, shot up, ran and hugged the creature. A huge disturbing smile on his face Tib hung off the creatures neck as it swung him back and forth playfully. Then the creature opened its yellow and black beak and let out a deafening shreak through the now cramped room.

If This thing opened its wings to there full wing span they would surley knock someone across this now cramped room.

It was a White Griffin, with dark blue eyes, light blue on its wings and legs in areas, one red ear and one purple ear. Its long sharp claws varied from red to purple.

Tib dropped off the creatures neck, patted it like an old friend and tried to make his way over to help Jaime to his feet.

Stefondro, beaming, swivled in the pilots seat and shouted " Here Oniak! Who's my big boy! Come 'ere you!" Followed by another deafening shriek the Griffin turned exuberantly toward his masters voice. Its lion like tail whipped around and smacked an unsuspecting Tib into the far wall. He slid quickly down dazed.

"Oh yup, how many times must I tell you Tib! you gotta watch out for that." Stefondro called as he stroked the creature.

Jaime crawled over to the seat he had been so eagerly determined to commandeer earlier. He was STILLquite determined mind you. He pulled himself up into it and studied the creature closley all while making sure it didn't knock him out of the chair.

Tib crawled over to join them and sat next to Stefondro on the ground.

Stefondro raised an eyebrow. " Must you guys crawl everywhere? it's disturbing."

His reply was a couple of blank stares and smiles only creeps could pull off.

"Alright Oniak out out out with you!" Oniak looked hesitant but with one look from his master turned and fled out the room.

Jaime did not manage to stay in his chair afterall.

Stefondro looked around as if checking to make certain everything was intact when his bow fell over. He glared.

"Rev! Don't you be that way! There's just about enough love in my heart for both you and Oniak!" he shook his head in disgust.

Jaime climbed back into the chair for what he hoped, but sincerely doubted, would be the last time.

Suddenly the ship started to shake. Jaime fell out of his chair . . . .

"Whoah guys are you seeing this?" he gasped.

"Yeah, I mean who could miss something like that!?" Stefondro exclaimed as he peered out the veiwscreen toward a strange object in space.

Tib whirled around from the replicator where he had been stuffing his face with egg rolls. " Hmm? Miss what? something about missing something, miss who, who missed?"

Stefondro and Jaime shook thier heads at Tib and went back to figuring out what was going on.

"The object is apparently giving off bio-cobalt temporal radiation causing the ship to shudder." Jaime pointed out.

"Yes, but what could be giving off such a hexa-phased power sink?" Stefondro replied matter of factly.

Tib couldn't possibly begin to comprehend even the slightest bit what the others ment by that. "The What what?" he asked getting totally ignored.

"I don't know, maybe we could find out using an auto-nucleonic amplification burst."

"Nah a duo-genic thermal burst would work much better."

"Amplifiiiiicaaaation."

"Theeeeermall."

"No."

"Yeees."

Tib just seriously had to interupt this. "Guys just look at it its a-"

"AUTO - NUCLEONIC!"

"DUO-GENIC YOU IDIOT!"

"Guys calm, its obviouisly-"

"OMG I know what it is! It's a intrargenerative focal cradle!" Jaime slapped his hands together in acheivment.

Stefondro shoved Jaime non-too-nicley on the back of the head. " Nooo Its an iso-regenerative slipstream frame!"

Things were really getting heated in here. Tib attempted to push them both out of their chairs but only managed to awkwardly crack his own wrist and topple off balance. Mostly he just utterly failed. " Ow . . . . mmm that hurt. . . . oh ah umm guys will ya look at it its a door!"

They both stared at him refusing to look. After 10 minutes Stefondro gave in and turned to check. " Oh yeah it is a umm door . . . . frame and all . . . . oh and look it even has the knob too. . . "

Tib threw his hands up " Alrighty then SOLVED! now whos hungry I am!"

" Oh me!"

"Didn't you just eat ? but Sounds good to me."

They all ran to the replicator. Jaime stopped short and looked back with a confuzzled expression . . . he shrugged and kept right on going to the food.

Tib is eating. Stefondro is eating. Now Jaime is eating. Tibs still eating. Stefondros looking around . . .oh wait no now hes eating again.

Jaimes getting comfortable. Let me guess . . . yup Tibs eating. Stefondros handing his food to Tib and getting up.

Jaimes looking accusingly at Stefondro and pointing at the food he just handed to Tib and not him. Tibs eating . . .

Stefondros eye is twitching, he is now officially in the middle of the room, now he's walking towards the chair and veiwscree - Oop he tripped! HE'S FALLI- oh, no, ok hes good he caught himself . . he made it. Hes sitting. Oh now hes speaking and swiveling at once ( What talent!) " Why is there a door floating in space?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chap:2

" Was that a rhetorical question?" Tib asked while he noisily munched away on whatever he was stuffing his face with. Stefondro grumbled to himself ignoring Tibs dumb question.

"How about that? was that rhetorical?"

"Tib Stop being stupid for a few minutes."

"Was that rhe- Oh."

Jaime scrambled up to check some more readings. The ship was still shaking and looming ever closer to the mysterious door.

"It appears to be sucking us in." Jaime stated from the pilots seat. Stefondro was struggling his way over through the ships tremors when Oniak stuffed his head through the door and screached.

"No, no Oniak Daddys busy! Get outta here! go sleep in our dirty laundry pile or something!"

"Ok." Tib, 4 cheese quasadilla in one hand, peanut brittle milkshake in the other, shot for the door.

"No Tib! not you, I was talking to-" The ship lurched violently toward the door causing everyone to fling to the ground and roll. And God forbid Jaime give up his chair, so he took it with him.

"Gosh Darn it Jaime! you broke my chair!" Stefondro called out from his crumpled headstand position in the mancave.

Taking note of Stefondros outburst Tib pulled a broken bent up Rev out from under himself and made a valiant effort to hide it real well.

The ship lurched once more and then *_POOF* _disappeared through the door and beyond.

"Ow My honey bunz!" Were the first words Jaime managed to utter when he awoke on the ground in a barren open desert landscape.

"Lasagna . . ." Was what a milkshake covered Tib managed to conjure up and . . .

"REV MY MAIN MAN! MY PAL! What happened to you! it looks like you've been sat on by an Elephant!" was pretty much the best Stefondro could do at the moment.

Stefondro ran over to a nearby mud puddle and pulled his precious bow out. Its bowstring had snapped off and it was bent a little. Tib and Jaime crawled over.

"It's funny isn't it." Tib whispered to Jaime. " Yeah, the overeactions people are capable of." " No not that . . . it's just of all the places it could of landed, it managed to land in the one and only existing mud puddle in the area."

Jaime contemplated this. " Hmmm . . . yeah i totally see your point, that is weird."

Stefondro used his foot to unbend Rev and pulled out a new string from his arrow holder, which had landed in the one and only dark thorny pit nearby. . . . . ( I won't get into the details on how they got that out . . . let's just say it involved alot of bribery . . . and pain.)

Stefondro studied Rev " Alright buddy you look good as new or should i say even better then new."

"Thanks Stefondro."

"Tib, could you, for once, figure out on your own that I wasn't talking to you?" Stefondro sniffed around. "And is that peanut brittle i smell?"

Tib smiled sheepishly , muttered "Guilty" then commenced to licking his sleeves off. Stefondro couldn't help but to gag and avert his eyes from that disgusting display.

Meanwhile Jaime had wandered over to a slight shimmer in the air across his path. It was barley visible, just a shimmery see through curtain stretching across the landscape. In fact he got so carried away that he wandered right on through it.

Before a shocked Stefondro and Tib could respond some random dude popped into existance where Jaime used to be. He fell onto his butt as if he were just about to sit down. He had blond scruffy hair, bright green eyes, and brown spots that dotted up both sides of his face and neck . He wore a black shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows with an orange vest and tie over it.

He looked up in surprise "Oh, hi there I was just about -" _*POOF* _he shimmered away and there stood Jaime eating a grilled cheese and ham sandwhich. "Oh hey guys this sandwhich is really good -" _*POOF* _the other guy was back.

"To sit down for lun-" _ *POOF* _

Stefondro and Tib watched in confusion as the two others kept shimmering in and out of existance.

"Its like nothing ive ever had bef-" _*POOF* _

"I seem to have misplaced my grilled cheese and ham sandw-" _*POOF* _

"Tastes like-" _*POOF* _

The blonde dude reappeard and quickly stepped forward out of the shimmer curtain. " You've got to excuse the disappearences hehe." He held out his hand toward Stefondro. "My name is Trillien." He laughed a little. " Apparently my parents had a sense of humor , me being a Trill and all, Just call me Lien." Stefondro shook his hand and introduced himself. When Tib held out his own hand Stefondro warned Lien not to touch it for it was still sticky with milkshake.

Lien shook it anyway with a grin.

Stefondro could see where this was going . . . . .

_*POOF* _"you guys have got to try this sand-" _*POOF* _

"Ah so thats where my sandwhich went! HeHa!"

_*POOF* _Jaime appeard once again shoving the sandwhich around to see if anyone wanted a bite. Lien grabbed Jaimes shirt and pulled him forward before he could vanish again.

"Move up a little there mister." Lien warned. Jaime offered the sandwhich up into his face in response. Lien held up a "one moment" finger, ran toward the shimmer curtain _*POOF* _

_*POOF* _and reappeared with another sandwhich. They both smiled creepily at eachother, then bumped their sandwhiches together in a sandwhich celebration. Tib dived for a peice of ham that flung out.

"I don't even know you man." Jaime said giddily, oblivious that most of his ham was missing. Lien just shrugged and took a bite if his own sandwhich.

Tib Watched anxiously, unsatisfied with the little piece of ham he dug off the ground. "Hey I want something!"

"Oh sorry here." Lien held his food out.

"No I don't want that."

"Well what do you want?"

Tib breathed in as if he were smelling something heavenly. "I wanna crazy cheesy crust pizza from Pizza Hut."

Lien Nodded and started toward the shimmer " coming right u-" He ran into Stefondros chest. Stefondro glared with his arms crossed. " Noones getting any pizza until you explain what in the blazes is going on, starting with that freaky door! And then we can get around to why people keep vanishing and coming back with sandwhiches! its just not NORMAL!"

Lien put his hands up in defense. " Alright, alright if you must know, I'll explain as best i can."


End file.
